13 July 2008

Beautiful Words from Urbanus Rhegius...

...confessor of Smalcald, Superintendent of Lüneburg on the topic of honoring the saints:

"Their love for us has not diminished but increased. That does not mean, however, that we should invoke the saints, just as we do not call upon angels, but only upon Christ our God. We should nevertheless honor the saints just as the early Church honored them by respectfully celebrating their memory. It gave thanks to God for setting them free, for the grace given to them, for their blessedness, and for the excellent gifts which God through the saints has poured out upon the church...

"Are not saints the brightest mirrors of divine grace in which we see what the grace of God can do?...

"We do not believe that the saints are gone, but rather gone ahead to the life of the age to come...

"O that blessed city of God, into which so many children, virgins, and martyrs have been received, where we will see for eternity apostles, prophets, patriarchs, and all the righteous who have believed in Christ, from Adam up to the last Christian on earth! We will see choirs of angels, and the most blessed mother herself who is the noblest member of the mystical body, finally the only source of eternal joy for angels and humans, Jesus Christ the king of glory, and God who is all in all. By reverently recalling such things, faith in our glorious resurrection and future life will surely be inflamed, nurtured, and confirmed in us.

"This remembrance of the dead...is an open testimony of charity and of faith in the glorious resurrection of the flesh. And since it is a fruit of faith that works through love, no one will reject it except for Epicureans and Sadducees.

Rhegius, *Preaching the Reformation* selections from pp. 95-101

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